Valentin Galarza Morante

Valentin Galarza Morante (1882-1951) was the Interior Minister of Francoist Spain from 1941 to 1942. As a right-wing monarchist, Galarza's reactionary views occasionally brought him into conflict with the fascist Falange party.

Biography
Valentin Galarza Morante was born in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain in 1882, and he became an officer in the Spanish Army. An early supporter of Jose Sanjurjo, he backed Sanjurjo's failed 1932 reactionary uprising against the Second Spanish Republic, and he was one of the founders of the Union Militar Espanola. He became Francisco Franco's link to the UME, and he entered Falange politics after the Spanish Civil War's end in 1939. In 1941, planning to check the growing influence of Ramon Serrano Suner in the cabinet, Franco appointed Galarza the new Interior Minister. He dismissed all the fascist under-secretaries in his government, including Propaganda Minister Dionisio Ridruejo, who had written a scathing article about him. His close support of Jose Enrique Varela and his monarchist views led to his removal from office in 1942, and he died in 1951.